RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING EDITED BY JUSSI HEIKKILÄ

Transcription

1 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING EDITED BY JUSSI HEIKKILÄ

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3 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING EDITED BY JUSSI HEIKKILÄ

4 Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto - Tampere University of Technology Jussi Heikkilä (ed.) Relocation of Nordic Manufacturing Tampere University of Technology. Industrial and Information Management. Tampere 2017 Copyright: Authors Layout: Jaakko Kahala Tampereen Offsetpalvelu 2017 ISBN (printed) ISBN (PDF)

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research report draws on the insights developed on the research project Reshoring of Manufacturing (ROaMING): Disruptive Technologies, Business Ecosystems and Performance Information as Key Enablers. The project was conducted during the period The research pursued increased understanding of the extent and nature of relocation trends in manufacturing in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The project scrutinized the status and potential of reshoring of manufacturing as a source of renewal of the manufacturing sector, its prerequisites and consequences. The goal was to establish a state-of-the-art knowledge base of relocation trends in Nordic manufacturing, and to disseminate these practical and theoretical insights to manufacturing industries, policy-makers and the research community. The ROaMING research project was conducted in collaboration between Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Department of Industrial Management in Finland, and Lund University, Department of Industrial Management and Logistics in Sweden. The project was part of the Innovation research program Renewal of Manufacturing jointly financed by Tekes - the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received for this research, as well as the fruitful discussions with the researchers of the parallel projects and the reference group members in this innovation research program. The principal researchers on the ROaMING project were Professor Jussi Heikkilä, Professor Miia Martinsuo, Assistant Professor Teemu Laine, and Professor Petri Suomala from TUT, and Professor Jan Olhager from Lund University. The survey data collection was done jointly by researchers in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. An important contributor to this research effort has been the close collaboration with Professor Jan Stentoft at the University of Southern Denmark, Kolding. We thank Jan for his invaluable contribution. In addition, the following people have had a main role in the research for the project, we owe our thanks to all of them: Petri Ahvonen, Pooja Chaoji, Malin Johansson, Dixit K.C., Samuli Kinnunen, Kirsi Lindfors, Sanna Nenonen, Natalia Saukkonen, Lisa Thoms, and Tommi Valkonen. Finally, we would like to thank all those who helped us in collecting data in the case companies, commented our texts and helped us to formulate the findings and recommendations in this report. Jussi Heikkilä Jan Olhager Miia Martinsuo Teemu Laine RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 3

6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Manufacturing industries have had an important role in the export-driven economies of the Nordic countries. Manufacturing companies from these countries have increasingly been moving production abroad in recent years. However, backshoring of previously offshored manufacturing is attracting growing attention among researchers and policy-makers. This phenomenon, and its consequences for the renewal of manufacturing, are yet little understood. The research project Reshoring of manufacturing (ROaMING): Disruptive Technologies, Business Ecosystems and Performance Information as Key Enablers focused on increased understanding of production relocation trends in the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The aim was to create in-depth knowledge on the status of and potential for relocating manufacturing as a source of renewal of the manufacturing sector. The research approach consisted of quantitative and qualitative parts utilizing both available databases and new data collected through a large-scale survey and case research. The report consists of five main content chapters. First, the survey results of offshoring and backshoring trends in the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are presented. Then we discuss the use of financial information in decision-making regarding manufacturing offshoring and backshoring. Thereafter the results of a study on manufacturing innovations and the adoption and implementation of new manufacturing technologies are reported. The fourth chapter presents the results of a study involving two manufacturing companies on the role of business ecosystems in manufacturing relocation decisions. Finally, the fifth chapter explores the global production investments made during the period by large manufacturing firms with headquarters in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The results among the Nordic manufacturing firms indicate that offshoring is clearly more common than backshoring. The manufacturing relocations by Nordic firms are geographically wide-ranging. The most important regions for offshoring and of backshoring are Eastern and Western Europe, the Nordic countries, and China. Offshored production is typically cost focused, whereas production relocated to the Nordic countries is relatively complex and technology-intensive, seeking access to technology, skills and knowledge, and proximity to R&D and product development. Movement of production is expected to continue both offshore and back. The reinforcement of the Nordic countries as a strong base for high value-adding manufacturing firms can be influenced by policy measures and future research. Policy implications, as well as future research proposals are noted as the result of this study. Cost competitiveness in the Nordic countries needs to be ensured in relation to their reference group in the competition. This also exerts pressure for 4 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

7 continuous productivity improvements through technological advances and process improvements. Access to skills, knowledge and technology are important factors for Nordic manufacturers to relocate production. Therefore product, process and supply chain innovation, as well as colocation of R&D and production, need to be promoted. Policy-makers need to pay attention to maintaining the Nordic innovation systems. Many firms seem to lack a clear strategy or analytical capabilities for manufacturing location decisions. Expertise on managing global manufacturing networks should be enhanced. Follow-up on the extent, drivers and benefits of production relocations of the Nordic manufacturing firms is needed to enhance the fact-based understanding of the longer-term trend of manufacturing relocations. RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 5

8 CONTENTS Acknowledgements... 3 Executive Summary... 4 JUSSI HEIKKILÄ, JAN OLHAGER, MIIA MARTINSUO, TEEMU LAINE, AND PETRI SUOMALA: Introduction and Background of Research... 9 CHAPTER 1 JAN OLHAGER, JUSSI HEIKKILÄ, MALIN JOHANSSON, AND SANNA NENONEN: Relocation Patterns in Nordic Manufacturing Industries Introduction Research Data Scope of Manufacturing Relocations Regional Perspectives on Relocations and Markets Extent of Offshoring and Backshoring Drivers of Offshoring and Backshoring of Production Manufacturing Relocations Internal and External to the Firm Benefits of Offshoring and Backshoring Future Expectations Conclusions CHAPTER 2 TEEMU LAINE, PETRI SUOMALA, TOMMI VALKONEN, AND NATALIA SAUKKONEN: Use of Accounting and Performance Information in Relocation Decision-Making Introduction Overall Role of Financial Information in Production Relocation Decisions Availability of Financial Information for Production Relocation Decisions Perceived Support from Financial Information in Analysis and Decision-Making Two Case Studies: Unveiling Relocation Decision Processes in Offshoring and Backshoring Conclusions RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

9 CHAPTER 3 MIIA MARTINSUO AND POOJA CHAOJI: Manufacturing Innovations and Their Implications for Manufacturing Relocation Introduction Manufacturing Relocation and Innovations in Three Nordic Countries Rationale and Challenges in Creating Manufacturing Technology Innovations Different Processes for Different RMTI Contexts and Cases Conclusions CHAPTER 4 PETRI AHVONEN AND MIIA MARTINSUO: Manufacturing Location Decisions and Renewal of Business Ecosystems Introduction Manufacturing Location Decisions in Business Ecosystems Ecosystem Stakeholders Driving Relocation Decisions Consequences of Manufacturing Location Decisions in the Ecosystem Conclusions CHAPTER 5 JUSSI HEIKKILÄ AND JAN OLHAGER: Global Production Investments by Large Nordic Manufacturing Firms Introduction Data Collection Investment Sizes and Types Largest Identified Individual Investments Geographic Locations of Identified Investments Conclusions JUSSI HEIKKILÄ, JAN OLHAGER, MIIA MARTINSUO, AND TEEMU LAINE: Conclusions, Policy Implications and Future Research Policy Implications Derived from the Research Proposals for Future research References Publications from the ROaMING Project Appendix 1: The Questionnaire for Survey Data Collection Appendix 2: Summary of RMTI Cases Analyzed RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 7

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11 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH JUSSI HEIKKILÄ, JAN OLHAGER, MIIA MARTINSUO, TEEMU LAINE, AND PETRI SUOMALA Today, manufacturing enterprises are part of truly global value chains. Parts, components, and products are sourced across several continents, manufactured on other regions, and then shipped forward for further processing, packaging, assembly, storage, and sale (Ferdows, 1997). Manufacturing industries traditionally have been important drivers of employment and export-fueled economic growth in the Nordic countries. Many manufacturing companies from these countries, however, increasingly have moved production abroad, and high costs at home have been among the primary reasons for these decisions. At the same time, backshoring of previously offshored manufacturing is a relatively new but potentially growing trend (Fratocchi et al., 2016; Kinkel, 2014; Tate, 2014). This phenomenon and all its consequences for the renewal of manufacturing have been little studied so far. Backshored activities are assumed to be different from those offshored. Changes are taking place in the configuration of the backshored activity and the related processes, the relationships with the other functions of the firm, and the broader global business network. This book reports the results of the research project Reshoring of Manufacturing (ROaMING): Disruptive Technologies, Business Ecosystems, and Performance Information as Key Enablers. The project was part of the innovation research program Renewal of Manufacturing jointly financed by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, and Vinnova, the Swedish innovation agency. This study was intended to increase understanding of the extent and nature of production relocation trends in three Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The aim was to create in-depth knowledge on the status and potential of manufacturing relocation as an important source of renewal for the manufacturing sector, its prerequisites, and its possible consequences. RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 9

12 The research focused on the following four research questions: 1. Why and at what rate are manufacturing companies relocating their manufacturing operations, both offshoring and backshoring? 2. How do manufacturing firms decide on production relocation, and what are the roles of accounting and performance information in this decision-making? 3. How can manufacturing technology innovations enable manufacturing relocations and how do companies adopt and carry out these innovations? 4. How do companies investments in production relocation and manufacturing technology innovations relate to each other and affect business ecosystems? The research design consisted of quantitative and qualitative approaches utilizing both available databases and new data collected through case research and a largescale survey. Data collection and analysis were done on the following three levels: A large-scale survey to uncover recent trends in relocation of manufacturing. This phase of the data collection utilized a survey instrument developed earlier and used by the University of Southern Denmark (Arlbjørn et al., 2013, 2014a, 2014b). The same survey was administered in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in 2015 to compare offshoring and backshoring trends in these three Nordic countries. Analysis of manufacturing investments from public databases, their classifications, and their potential for the revitalization of manufacturing-based sectors. Focused, in-depth case studies and comparative analysis of selected companies, employing different approaches toward manufacturing relocation, manufacturing innovations, use of financial information, and effects on business ecosystems. Production relocation may result in different outcomes described with varying terminology. For example, outsourcing and insourcing concern the governance and ownership structure of companies, while offshoring and backshoring refer to the geographical movement of the activities or functions of a company to a new location in another country or back to the company s home location. However, in the literature, the use of these terms is not always consistent, and especially in practice, 10 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

13 there are different interpretations of these terms. In this study, the following definitions of these key terms were adopted in line with recent advancements in the production relocation literature: Offshoring: relocation of activities or functions from a company s home country to another country, independent of the ownership of the transferred operation Outsourcing: movement of activities or functions from the ownership of one company to the ownership of another legal company Backshoring: repatriation of activities or functions carried out in another country to the home country Insourcing: movement of activities or functions from another company to be carried out in-house by a company either in its home country or abroad The rest of this report is organized as follows. The results part of this book contains five content chapters. The first chapter presents the results from a survey on offshoring and backshoring activities of manufacturing companies in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The second chapter discusses company-level decision-making related to manufacturing offshoring and backshoring. Thereafter, the third chapter reports the results of a study on manufacturing innovations requiring new process configurations with relocated manufacturing and the adoption and implementation of new manufacturing technologies. The fourth chapter presents a qualitative, exploratory study implemented with two manufacturing companies on the role of business ecosystems in manufacturing location decisions. This chapter examines the consequences of manufacturing relocation for business ecosystems. The fifth chapter explores global production investments made from 2005 to 2015 by large manufacturing firms with headquarters in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The concluding part of the report includes a discussion of the results and their implications for research and practice. RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 11

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15 CHAPTER 1 RELOCATION PATTERNS IN NORDIC MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES JAN OLHAGER, JUSSI HEIKKILÄ, MALIN JOHANSSON, AND SANNA NENONEN INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the main results from a survey on offshoring and backshoring activities in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden administered through a research collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark in Kolding, Denmark (Professor Jan Stentoft); Tampere University of Technology, Finland (Professors Jussi Heikkilä, Miia Martinsuo, and Petri Suomala); and Lund University in Sweden (Professor Jan Olhager). The researchers jointly developed the survey instrument in the spring and summer of The structure and questions in the survey are shown in Appendix 1. The survey was distributed in September and October 2015, and the data were collected in October and November RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 13

16 The targeted companies consisted of all the companies with a minimum of 50 employees in all the manufacturing industry categories in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark (SI code 10 33). In total, companies belonged to the target group, and Danish, 949 Finnish, and Swedish manufacturers were contacted. A total of 847 responses were received (Sweden 373 responses, Finland 229, Denmark 245 responses) for a response rate of 18.5%. The analysis in this chapter focuses on the (i) extent, (ii) drivers, (iii) benefits, and (iv) expectations of manufacturing relocations in the near future (i.e., the next two years). These results and comparisons across companies with different relocation profiles are presented and commented in the following sections. First, the research data are described. RESEARCH DATA The collected survey data represented a good cross-section of industries in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in terms of size (number of employees) and industry, and the respondents could be expected to have good knowledge and experience of the issues in the survey. The respondents were all upper- or middle-level managers in areas related to production and thus presumably were knowledgeable about the survey questions. The respondents had an average of 15.8 years experience in production and operations management and 6.2 years in their current positions. The size distribution (number of employees at the firm level) was relatively similar in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, but the Finnish sample included relatively smaller firms, and the Swedish sample relatively larger firms. The industry profiles exhibited some differences. The food industry had the highest share of firms in Denmark, while the machinery and equipment industry was well-represented in all the three countries and had the highest share of respondents in Finland and Sweden. Although the distribution of responses by size and industry was a good representation of the entire population, there was some overemphasis on large companies. Table 1 shows the respondents' characteristics in the three countries in terms of firm size and industry. The highest number in each row is indicated in bold. 14 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

17 TABLE 1. RESPONDENTS CHARACTERISTICS (PERCENTAGES OF THE COUNTRY-SPECIFIC SAMPLES). CHARACTERISTIC DENMARK FINLAND SWEDEN ALL COUNTRIES Number of employees within firm Less than More than Industry (SI code) Machinery industry and equipment (28) Fabricated metal products, except machines (25) Food industry (10) Electrical equipment (27) Other non-metallic mineral products industry (23) Rubber and plastics industry (22) Chemical industry (20) Computer, electronic and optical products (26) Timber industry (16) Paper industry (17) Motor vehicle, trailer and semi-trailer industry (29) Basic metals industry (24) Furniture industry (31) Other industries SCOPE OF MANUFACTURING RELOCATIONS The respondent firms were divided into four groups according to their experience of relocations. Table 2 shows the shares of the respondent firms in four groups of relocation experience. The first column presents firms that had only offshored manufacturing in the past five years ( ), the second column firms that had both offshored and backshored, the third column firms that had only backshored, and, finally, the fourth column firms that had not moved manufacturing at all during this period. We explicitly asked for firms in the last group to respond to the survey even if they had not moved any manufacturing in order to get full picture of firms that RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 15

18 moved and that did not move (a number of questions in the questionnaire were general and did not require that any relocation had taken place). Manufacturing firms in these Nordic countries were quite active in manufacturing relocations. During the past five years, 275 firms (32.5%) had offshored production, while 160 firms (18.9%) had backshored (these numbers include respondents that did both offshoring and backshoring). A number of the respondent firms (57.9%) had not moved any production in this period, while some firms had both offshored and backshored production (9.2%). Table 2 presents the total number of relocations by these groups and the distribution by country. The highest number in each column is indicated in bold, and the lowest number as italics. TABLE 2. DISTRIBUTION ACROSS MANUFACTURING RELOCATION ACTIVITY AND COUNTRIES (NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS/PERCENTAGES). ONLY OFFSHORING BOTH OFF- AND BACKSHORING ONLY BACKSHORING NO MOVEMENT TOTAL No. of all respondents Denmark 27.3 % 6.5 % 6.1 % 60.0 % 245 Finland 21.0 % 4.8 % 8.3 % 65.9 % 229 Sweden 22.0 % 13.7 % 12.9 % 51.5 % 373 All three countries 23.3% 9.2% 9.7% 57.9% 100% It should be noted that these figures do not reflect the magnitude of relocation in terms of monetary value but only the number of respondents who reported that their companies had either relocated or not relocated manufacturing. Comparing the three countries studied, Denmark had a higher share of offshoring firms (27.3%) than the three countries combined (23.3%). Sweden had relatively higher shares of both backshoring firms (12.9% vs. 9.7%) and bidirectional movers (13.7% vs. 9.2%), while Finland had a higher share of non-movers (65.9% vs. 57.9%) compared to the three countries combined. REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON RELOCATIONS AND MARKETS The manufacturing relocations made by the Nordic firms were global. The regions for offshoring and backshoring, as well as the markets served by this production, included all regions of the world (see Figure 1). The major regions for offshoring 16 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

19 from these three Nordic countries were Eastern and Western Europe and China, accounting for 79% of all recent significant offshoring projects by the respondent firms. The major regions of origin for backshoring to the Nordic countries were Western and Eastern Europe, other Nordic countries, and China, accounting for 87% of recent significant backshoring projects. FIGURE 1. GEOGRAPHICAL AREA FROM OR TO WHICH PRODUCTION WAS MOVED. OFFSHORING COMPANIES BACKSHORING COMPANIES Another Nordic country Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe North America Latin America China India Asia (excl China and India) 43 % 20 % 16 % 6 % 4 % 1 % 2 % 7 % 26 % 31 % 17 % 3 % 1 % 13 % 1 % 8 % Africa, Middle East, Australia 1 % 1 % 60 % 40 % 20 % 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % When comparing production movements across regions within internal and external networks, several differences between external and internal movements were found. In backshoring production to the Nordic home countries, 44% of the firms that had made the movement from one of their own plants made the movement from Western Europe, compared to 19% of those that had made the movement from an external subcontractor or contract manufacturer. In movements from an external party, in contrast, Eastern Europe (22% from an external plant, 13% from the firm s own plant), China (17% from an external plant, 11% from the firm s own plant), and the rest of Asia (13% from external plant, none from the firm s own plant) were found to be more common points of departure for movement back to the Nordic countries. These results mean that backshoring movements from Western European countries were more common within the company s own plant network, but backshoring movements from Eastern European and Asian countries were more common from the external suppliers or the contract manufacturers. These findings indicated regional production-location strategies within companies own production networks in Western Europe and potentially disappointing experiences of working with external suppliers in more remote locations, which resulted in backshore insourcing of production. Similar differences were not found for offshoring relocations. RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 17

20 EXTENT OF OFFSHORING AND BACKSHORING The respondents were asked how many times their company had permanently moved production abroad to another plant (existing or new) within their company or to another company s plant (external supplier or contract manufacturer). Table 3 displays the extent of backshoring and offshoring by number of relocation projects in both directions during In addition, the average number of relocation projects per respondent firm was calculated. All the data are displayed for Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the three countries combined. TABLE 3. DISTRIBUTION OF MANUFACTURING RELOCATION BY ACTIVITY AND COUNTRY (NUMBER OF RESPONSES). ONLY OFFSHORING BOTH OFFSHORING AND BACKSHORING ONLY BACKSHORING NO MOVEMENT TOTAL Total no. of responses Total no. of offshoring projects Denmark Finland Sweden Total no. of backshoring projects Denmark Finland Sweden Total no. of relocation projects Average no. of projects 3.30* 6.21* 2.37* ** * In each respective category (e.g., both offshoring and backshoring: ( )/78=6.21) ** Relative to the entire sample (i.e., 1 329/847=1.57) Another question was how companies of different sizes (by number of employees) and manufacturing networks (by number of plants) differ in their manufacturing relocations. The differences between the four manufacturing relocation-activity types were analyzed by number of employees and the number of manufacturing plants. The results are shown in Table 4; the highest number in each column is indicated in bold, and the lowest number in italics. 18 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

21 TABLE 4. DIFFERENCES IN MANUFACTURING RELOCATION-ACTIVITY BY COMPANY SIZE AND NUMBER OF PLANTS (PERCENTAGES). Number of employees in the company (% within the group) ONLY OFFSHORING N=197 BOTH OFF- AND BACKSHORING N=78 ONLY BACK- SHORING N=82 NO MOVEMENT N= Over Number of manufacturing plants (% within the group) Over Table 4 shows that companies of all sizes relocated production, but large companies were considerably more active in doing so than others. Among the smallest companies ( employees), the majority (78%) did not move production, but some small companies moved production in both directions. The largest companies with more than 500 employees were the most active in production relocation; 60.3% of companies in this size group moved production offshore, back home, or in both directions. The same trend shows in the number of manufacturing plants. Companies that had more production plants typically were more active in moving production than those that had only one or a few production plants. There was a gradual increase in the movement activity as company size grew in terms of the number of plants. Interestingly, though, movement activity decreased when the number of plants went beyond 10. This result indicates that companies with a high number of plants in several locations were in a relatively stable situation and perhaps did not need to move production within their geographically distributed networks. Companies with 3 10 plants more actively searched for improvements in their global production footprint. Table 4 also shows that the companies that did not move production were mostly small and/or owned single plants. There were significant differences in the tendencies of companies in different industries to relocate production (see Table 5). In the timber industry, 86.7% of the responding companies did not do any production location movements. Other industries in which movement activity was low were the other non-metallic mineral prod- RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 19

22 ucts industry (74.5% of the companies were non-movers), food industry (67.4%), furniture industry (64.0%), and paper industry (62.9%). At the other extreme was the electrical equipment industry, in which 61% of companies offshored and/or backshored production. The rate of backshoring was relatively high in industries such as the electrical equipment (20.4%), basic metals industry (16.0%), furniture industry (16.0%), and chemical industry (15.2%). TABLE 5. DIFFERENCES ACROSS MANUFACTURING RELOCATION ACTIVITY BY INDUSTRY (PERCENTAGES, ONLY INDUSTRIES WITH 25 OR MORE RESPONDENTS INCLUDED). ONLY OFFSHORING BOTH OFF- AND BACKSHORING ONLY BACKSHORING NO MOVEMENT Industry (SI code) a Food industry (10) Timber industry (16) Paper industry (17) Chemical industry (20) Rubber and plastics industry (22) Other non-metallic mineral products (23) Basic metals industry (24) Fabricated metal products (25) Computer, electronic and optical products (26) Electrical equipment (27) Machinery industry and equipment (28) Motor vehicle, trailer and semi-trailer (29) Furniture industry (31) The highest share of offshoring firms was in the computer, electronic, and optical products industry, with 37% of all companies moving manufacturing offshore. Also, the motor vehicle, trailer, and semi-trailer industry (30.0%), the machinery and equipment industry (28.9%), and the electrical equipment industry (27.8%) had higher than average rates of offshoring. The industries with the highest activity in both offshoring and backshoring included the basic metals industry (20.0%), the motor vehicle, trailer and semi-trailer industry (16.7%), and the chemical industry (15.2%). 20 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

23 DRIVERS OF OFFSHORING AND BACKSHORING OF PRODUCTION The drivers of decision-making in offshoring and backshoring were clearly different. The respondents were given 21 drivers of manufacturing relocation to consider and were asked to rate the importance of each factor in their recent relocation decisions. The same set of drivers was given for both offshoring and backshoring decisions. Table 6 shows the results of a two-tailed t-test for equality of means. The results regarding the decision drivers for each country (Denmark, Finland, and Sweden) had only small differences, so the results for the full sample are displayed here. The highest number in each column is indicated in bold, and the lowest number in italics. TABLE 6. DRIVERS OF OFF- AND BACKSHORING (AVERAGES OF THE RESPONSES). Drivers of off- and backshoring OFFSHORING N=275 BACKSHORING N=160 Labor cost a Logistics cost Other cost Changes in the currency exchange rates Production close to or in the market Access to skills and knowledge a Access to technology a Access to raw materials Proximity to R&D and product development a Flexibility a Lead-time a Quality a Risk diversification Country-specific conditions (e.g. subsidies, taxes, duties) c Trade barriers (e.g. customs, quotas, local content requirement) c Focus on core areas (and outsource non-core) Avoid investments in new equipment Requirement from customer (to move with customer) Follow industry practice Shortage of qualified personnel Time-to-market (bringing new products to market faster) a Statistical significances: a p 0.001; b p 0.010; c p RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 21

24 Several differences in the drivers of offshoring and backshoring were statistically significant. Labor costs dominated offshoring decisions (p 0.001). Country-specific conditions and trade barriers had higher importance in offshoring than backshoring but at a lower significance level (p 0.050). Backshoring decisions were based on a broader set of drivers. Quality, flexibility, lead time, access to skills and knowledge, access to technology, proximity to research and development (R&D), and time-tomarket were all significantly more important drivers of backshoring than offshoring (p 0.001). In sum, it became clear that offshoring had one logic, and backshoring had a different logic. MANUFACTURING RELOCATIONS INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TO THE FIRM Another perspective captured by the survey was whether the relocation projects were executed within the firm or between the firm and an external partner. External offshoring implied simultaneous outsourcing, while external backshoring implied simultaneous insourcing. For each offshoring and backshoring project, the respondents were asked whether the relocation was done within the company s own production network (internal movement) or with an external supplier or contract manufacturer (external movement). After eliminating responses which reported the movement to be both internal and external, the production relocation projects were classified among four alternative situations: Internal offshoring: 171 projects Offshore outsourcing: 85 projects Internal backshoring: 75 projects Backshore insourcing: 78 projects When moving production within the internal and external production network, offshoring production internally (67% of all recent significant offshoring projects) was more common than outsourcing production to external partners (33%). Internal and external movements were more balanced in backshoring: 49% of backshoring projects were internal, and 51% were external movements. Some of the drivers discussed differed significantly depending on whether the relocation was internal or external. Table 7 presents the results of a two-tailed t-test for equality of means for pairwise comparisons of internal offshoring (retaining ownership) and offshore outsourcing (transferring ownership) and of internal backshoring and backshore insourcing. Only the drivers with differences found to be statistically significant are included in Table 7. The higher number in each pairwise comparison is presented in bold. 22 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

25 TABLE 7. DRIVERS OF OFFSHORING / OUTSOURCING AND BACKSHORING / INSOURCING (AVERAGES OF THE RESPONSES). Drivers of off- and backshoring INTERNAL OFFSHORING N=171 OFFSHORING OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING N=85 INTERNAL BACKSHORING N=75 BACKSHORING BACKSHORE INSOURCING N=78 Logistics costs c Other costs c Production close to or in the market a Flexibility c Lead-time c Risk diversification c Country-specific conditions c Focus on core areas (and outsource non-core) b Avoid investments in new equipment a Requirement from customer c Statistical significances: a p 0.001; b p 0.010; c p Table 7 indicates that logistics costs and production close to or in the market were significantly more important for internal offshoring than external offshoring, and vice versa for focus on core areas. Thus, offshore outsourcing was concerned with non-core areas, while core areas were kept internal. In addition, when proximity to market and logistics costs were important, offshoring was more likely to be kept internally. In backshoring, flexibility and lead time were the key drivers for insourcing production from external partners. Therefore, if flexibility was poor, and lead times were long at external partners, backshoring insourcing was likely. Other costs, including administration and facility costs, could lead to internal backshoring if these cost elements developed in undesirable directions. BENEFITS OF OFFSHORING AND BACKSHORING The respondents were also asked to assess the level of benefits experienced from relocation projects. Overall, data from 275 offshoring firms and 160 backshoring firms were collected. Table 8 shows that 8 of the 10 benefit areas exhibited signifi- RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 23

26 cant differences between offshoring and backshoring. The highest number in each column is indicated in bold, and the lowest number in italics. The benefits in the table are ordered according to the difference between the mean values for offshoring and backshoring. TABLE 8. BENEFITS OF OFFSHORING AND BACKSHORING (MEAN VALUES, IN THE ORDER OF OFFSHORING MINUS BACKSHORING SCORE). Benefits of off- and backshoring OFFSHORING N=275 BACKSHORING N=160 Labor costs a Profitability Other costs Logistics costs a Volume flexibility a Product mix flexibility a Delivery reliability a Delivery speed a Process quality a Product quality a Statistical significances: a p 0.001; b p 0.010; c p Labor costs were the only statistically significantly different benefit for offshoring, whereas backshoring had a broader set of benefits. Logistics costs, volume and product-mix flexibility, delivery speed and reliability, and product and process quality were all significantly more related to backshoring than offshoring. Thus, the benefits were very much aligned with their respective drivers: offshoring resulted in benefits for labor costs, and backshoring in benefits for quality, lead time, and flexibility. The perceived benefits of production relocations were also analyzed by internal and external relocation. Table 9 shows the results of a two-tailed t-test for equality of means. Only benefits in which statistically significant differences were found are included in Table 9. The higher number in each pairwise comparison is indicated in bold. 24 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

27 TABLE 9. PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF OFFSHORING / OUTSOURCING AND BACKSHORING / INSOURCING. Benefits of off- and backshoring INTERNAL OFFSHORING OFFSHORING OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING INTERNAL BACKSHORING BACKSHORING BACKSHORE INSOURCING Logistics costs 3.20 b 2.73 b - - Delivery speed 3.02 c 2.68 c 3.59 a 4.11 a Delivery reliability 3.00 c 2.70 c 3.55 a 4.14 a Statistical significances: a: p 0.001; b: p 0.010; c: p Table 10 shows that the mean scores for the benefits logistics costs, delivery speed, and delivery reliability were higher for internal offshoring than offshore outsourcing. One explanation for this result was that internal offshoring, in addition to the cost driver was driven by the need to relocate production closer to the customers and markets, and the mean scores of the perceived benefits indicated that these benefits had been achieved. This observation implied that external offshoring did not lead to any particular benefits for logistics costs, delivery speed, and reliability. In cases when those factors were important, these results clearly indicated that internal offshoring was preferable, for example, permitting tighter control. In contrast, the scores for delivery speed and delivery reliability were higher for backshore insourcing than for internal backshoring. This result indicated that much could be gained in delivery performance by backshoring production from external partners; in other words, ownership was important for establishing and controlling delivery performance. FUTURE EXPECTATIONS The respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they expected to relocate manufacturing in the next two years through either offshoring or backshoring activities: moving production (i) back to Denmark, Finland, or Sweden (depending on the respondent s country of location); (ii) to another company plant located in the Nordic region; or (iii) to another company plant located in another European country. A 5-point scale was used (1 = not at all, 2 = minor extent, 3 = some extent, 4 = large extent, 5 = very large extent). Table 10 shows the results. All the mean values that exceed 2 are in bold. A mean value of less than 2 implied that most respondents in that group did not expect any moves. RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 25

28 TABLE 10. EXPECTED MANUFACTURING RELOCATION IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS (FROM THE TIME OF DATA COLLECTION IN ; MEAN VALUES). ONLY OFFSHORING BOTH OFF- AND BACKSHORING ONLY BACKSHORING NO MOVEMENT ALL GROUPS In the next 2 years, to what extent do you expect your company to move production: Abroad from Den/Fin/Swe Back to Den/Fin/Swe Back to another plant in your company, located in the Nordic region Back to another plant in your company, located in some other European country The results indicated that production relocation would continue in the future and that the expected future activity depended on the type of company. Companies that had not moved production in the past expected to remain passive in the future. Offshoring firms planned to continue to move more production abroad than other company types, and the backshoring firms expected to continue to move production back to the Nordic region. The group of companies that had done both offshoring and backshoring expected to continue to move production in both directions but seemingly moving more back than away from the Nordic region. CONCLUSIONS The importance of offshoring and backshoring of manufacturing from and to the Nordic countries has been increasing in recent years. The purpose of this survey study was to investigate the production relocation activities of manufacturing firms being located in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Manufacturing firms in the Nordic countries studied were active in manufacturing relocation. More than 40% of the manufacturing firms surveyed had offshored or backshored production or done both during the past five years. Offshoring was more common than backshoring. 26 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

29 The manufacturing relocation by the Nordic firms had a broad geographic scope; the major regions for offshoring and backshoring were Eastern and Western Europe, other Nordic countries, and China. These regions were also the dominant market regions for relocation of production, along with North America. Large companies with many plants in multiple locations were more active in relocating production than others. Companies in various industries differed in their tendencies to relocate production. Industries with low movement activity included the timber, non-metallic mineral products, and food industries. High shares of offshoring companies were found in the computer, electronic, and optical products; motor vehicle; machinery and equipment; and electrical equipment industries. The rate of backshoring was relatively high in the electrical equipment, basic metals, furniture, and chemicals industries. Overall, the survey results showed that offshored production was characterized as work intensive, whereas backshored production was relatively complex and technology intensive. The drivers of relocation decisions were clearly different for offshoring and backshoring. Labor costs were the dominant driver for offshoring decisions, whereas backshoring decisions were based on a broader set of drivers. Quality, flexibility, lead time, access to skills and knowledge, access to technology, proximity to R&D, and time-to-market were all significantly more important drivers of backshoring than offshoring. The benefits experienced from the relocation projects were highly aligned with the drivers in both relocation directions (i.e., both offshoring and backshoring). Offshore outsourcing generally was driven more by cost reduction and a focus on core areas, whereas internal offshoring was motivated more by seeking proximity to customers and markets. Drivers of backshore insourcing that potentially indicated unsatisfactory performance by offshore outsourced production were flexibility, lead time, and risk diversification. These drivers could result in backshore insourcing to the Nordic countries, particularly from far-off locations. Companies with 3 10 plants in multiple locations were more active in relocating production than others. Large firms with more than 10 plants were less active, indicating a more stable situation with less need for relocation activities. Backshoring movement from Western European countries was more common within companies plant networks, but backshoring movements from Eastern European and Asian countries were more common when involving external suppliers or contract manufacturers. These findings indicated regional production-location strategies within companies own production networks in Western Europe and potential experiences of under-performance in working with external suppliers in more remote locations. Some country differences were identified when comparing the respondents and the responses from Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The Finnish sample included RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 27

30 relatively smaller firms, while the Swedish sample included relatively larger firms. The countries had differences in their industry structures, and each country has its own particularly strong industries. The Swedish companies in the survey database more often had larger focal plants and higher numbers of plants and plant locations than the Danish and Finnish companies. When comparing the three countries by relocation activity, Denmark had a higher share of pure offshoring firms than the other two, Sweden had a relatively higher share of both backshoring firms and bidirectional movers, and Finland a higher share of non-movers. However, country of origin alone did not explain the differences in the manufacturing companies relocation activities. 28 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING

31 CHAPTER 2 USE OF ACCOUNTING AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION IN RELOCATION DECISION- MAKING TEEMU LAINE, PETRI SUOMALA, TOMMI VALKONEN, AND NATALIA SAUKKONEN INTRODUCTION This chapter discusses company-level decision-making related to offshoring and backshoring, which is a practically relevant yet under-researched issue (Arlbjorn & Mikkelsen, 2014; Kinkel, 2014). Although financial benefits are seen as key drivers of offshoring decisions, there is limited understanding of the actual role of financial information in shaping such decisions (Gylling et al., 2015). The actual decision-making processes concerning offshoring and backshoring are not thoroughly understood, particularly with respect to the potentially different roles of financial information to provide support in different circumstances (Burchell et al., 1980). RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING 29

32 Offshoring and backshoring decisions recently have gained attention as growing business phenomena with wider implications for managing global operations (Lewin & Peeters, 2006; Kedia & Mukherjee, 2009; Arlbjorn & Mikkelsen, 2014). For offshoring decisions, the starting point usually has been shifting production to low-wage or, more broadly speaking, low-cost countries. Cost savings, however, are not necessarily the only or even the primary reason for offshoring, but offshoring requires wider considerations of the sources of competitive advantage for companies in highcost economies (Lewin & Peeters, 2006). Backshoring is an increasingly important option in making decisions on production location. The understanding of backshoring could clearly benefit from longitudinal examination of the business context evolution (Arlbjorn & Mikkelsen, 2014). For example, Gylling et al. (2015) studied a case in which offshore production was moved back due to more accurate cost allocation, supplier cost changes, growing sales volumes, and other external factors, as well as network learning. Identifying the antecedents, motivators, and barriers of backshoring, however, requires indepth examination. Further research is needed, especially to better understand the dynamics of the economic factors underlying backshoring (Kinkel, 2014). The chapter raises the role of financial information in offshoring and backshoring decisionmaking through the following question: What is the actual role played by financial information when manufacturing firms make offshoring and backshoring decisions? Financial information may support managers in their decision-making in many different ways, improving understanding of the economic factors in a given context (Burchell et al., 1980; Hall, 2010). The availability of useful financial information is a prerequisite for supporting decision-making (Pizzini, 2006). Korhonen et al. (2013) argued that performance indicators and financial reporting should continuously respond to current circumstances and enable decision-making accordingly. This is also a valid viewpoint in the offshoring and backshoring context and draws companies attention to the potential support from financial analyses. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. Next, the survey results on the overall role of financial information in offshoring and backshoring are analyzed. The focus then shifts to country comparisons of the availability of cost information at different levels in production relocation decisions and the perceived support of financial information in financial analyses and various decisions related to production relocation. The discussion is deepened with two production relocation cases (offshoring and backshoring) and a detailed analysis of the decision-making processes before the conclusions of the chapter. 30 RELOCATION OF NORDIC MANUFACTURING